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Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky': Symphonies Nos. 1 & 6

Recorded at Festival Hall in October (No 1) and November (No 6) last year, these performances demonstrate the strides the London Philharmonic has made under the inspired direction of its young, Russian-born principal conductor. Presumably, there were patch sessions, as audience noise is kept to a minimum and the playing is so good that it rivals some of the great studio recordings. Jurowski makes an especially strong case for Tchaikovsky’s youthful first essay in symphonic form, a work he struggled with, and revised several times, stung by criticism from his teacher, Anton Rubinstein, in the late 1860s. Jurowski emphasises the free-flowing melodic freshness and songful wind-writing of the opening allegro tranquillo, and he never allows the momentum to falter, even in the fleeting passages where the young Tchaikovsky’s inspiration was not white-hot. It is a long journey from Winter Daydreams — the First Symphony’s subtitle — to his ultimate tragic masterpiece, the D minor Pathétique, now universally recognised as one of the most original and moving symphonies ever written. Jurowski adopts a broad, expansive approach for the adagio opening of the first movement, but ratchets up the tempo thrillingly after the peremptory chord announcing the allegro section. The strings caress the strange five-beat waltz, the brass strut their stuff militaristically in the march and the performance is rounded off with a heartbreakingly poignant adagio lamentoso. Unmissable. (Timesonline)